The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly to a digital camera with the preset data regarding the image data.
In recent years, along with the rapid spread of the digital camera, there is an increasing demand for utilizing an image through a removable memory between devices, such that the image captured by the digital camera is played by another digital camera, or output directly to the printer. For this demand, the file format for recording the image captured by the digital camera on a variety of kinds of removable memory has been standardized.
One of the file formats for recording the preset data regarding the image data is the DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) (Version 1.00) as released in 1999, and the DPOF (Version 1.10) was publicized in 2000. In the DPOF (Version 1.10), the specified data for an image file to be printed, the specified data for the number of prints, the specified data for the image file for automatic transmission, and the specified data for the image file for automatic reproduction can be recorded as the preset data. In the digital camera that supports the DPOF, a determination whether or not to print the data can be made, and the number of prints can be specified, while confirming the captured image on the LCD screen. In the digital camera, since the required information for printing or transmission is recorded before hand on the recording medium such as a memory card, there is no need of taking care about the file name or path name at the time of printing or transmission. Therefore, the DPOF is applied in various areas, including the laboratory print service or home printer, thereby making it easier to output the image data from the digital camera to the paper medium.
However, when a DPOF file such as an automatic print file is created or edited by the related digital camera, it is necessary that some operations is taken to switch from other modes such as a play mode to a specific mode for setting the DPOF, and another operation is taken to determine whether or not to select and print an image and specify the number of prints in the specific mode.
FIG. 9 shows one example of the operation for creating or editing an automatic print file in the related digital camera. For example, when an image desired for printing is found in a play mode, a dial switch 101 is firstly rotated to switch over to a DPOF setting mode to make the DPOF setting for the image (step 101). Then, a push button switch 102 is depressed in succession to change the displayed image and search for the image to be printed (step 102). Then, a push button switch 103 is depressed to set the number of printing the image (step 103). Then, a push button switch 104 is depressed to determine the setting content and create or edit the DPOF file (step 104). Then, the dial switch 101 is rotated to return to the play mode or photographing mode (step 105). In this manner, in the related digital camera, the operation of creating or editing the DPOF file is some complex.